Basketball: Men's Top 10 tracker; Playoffs begin

Eight of the top 10 teams have playoff games this weekend against non-top 10 teams, two of which have won those series and advanced to the conference final. The other two play each other in a rematch of last week's thriller that didn't disappoint.

UBC (17-1, 1st RPI): Host Alberta in best-of-three series. The first one was a 92-62 blowout with Kyle Watson scoring 25 in 23 minutes: he was 8-for-10 from the field and 9 of 10 from the line. Game 2 was Friday night, and another 30-point win and then some: 103-68. I had UBC as 87% favourites to win the Canada West playoffs (99.3% to beat Alberta), and they're well on their way. Brent Malish played just six minutes in this one as Kevin Hanson ran out a different starting lineup.

UBC has now clinched home-court advantage up until the Final 8, and play Saskatchewan in the semifinal.

Carleton (20-2, 2nd RPI): York on Saturday. An early spread on that one is about 26 points, but York did their part and kept it within half of that. Kevin McCleery had 22 in the Ravens' 78-65 win. Carleton now plays Ottawa, once again, in the OUA East final.

Cape Breton (17-1, 9th RPI): Rematch at St. F-X on Friday as their regular season winds down. Not to reduce it all to the last minute, but: they pulled within one on a Paris Carter three-ball with thirty seconds to go and then stopped the X-Men, leaving them about half that time to get a basket. Carter tried from downtown again and missed, and no other shots came as CBU lost 81 to 80.

St. F-X (17-1, 5th RPI): As noted, beat CBU 81-80. It was the Riiny and T-Bear show: Christian Upshaw got 33 points; Riiny Ngot came in to replace Alberto Rodriguez (who had four fouls) and blocked four shots right away. Another great game between these two teams...let's hope they meet again for the AUS championship.

Ottawa (18-4, 7th RPI): Host Queen's in OUA quarterfinal, who ran out a short lineup (only seven players got more than three minutes on the court) and fell behind early. Ottawa won it 77-61, Josh Gibson-Bascombe hitting 25 and Warren Ward also reaching 20 to offset the 23 and 10 rebounds from Mitch Leger.

Calgary (15-5, 6th RPI): Host Lethbridge starting Friday in best-of-3. Wayne Thomashas more. They won the first 62 to 57, but that score hides the story of the game: another second-half collapse vs. Lethbridge. The Dinos were up 42 to 19 at the half and were outscored 22-9 in the third. They shot just 31%, Tyler Fidler going, wait for it, 0-for-14. I'm not really sure how they won.

The rubber was an eight-point win by Calgary (87-79), and even though the Pronghorns had five players in double digits, so did the Dinos: 26 from Robbie Sihota and 20 from Fidler, who was a much-better 8 of 19 this time out. Ross Bekkering had four blocks, channeling his brother.

Windsor (17-5, 3rd RPI): Beat Laurier by the same score that Calgary beat Lethbridge. This one saw WLU go 4 of 6 from the line, but Windsor went 14 of 15; in other words, the entire margin of victory. Take from that what you will. Isaac Kuon had nine points in the fourth to hold Laurier off, as part of his game-high 22. Lakehead now comes to town next Saturday for the OUA West final, and the winner earns a spot in the Final 8.

Lakehead (17-5, 10th RPI): Host Waterloo in OUA quarterfinal. Did you watch this game? You should have watched this game. Waterloo pulled away early but Lakehead's D held them down in the second half. At a time when the Thunderwolves were down by double digits, Ryan Thomson put the team on his back and kept them as close as he could; he ended up 8-for-13 with 20 points. Waterloo had their chances, but their shooting hurt them: outside of Dave Burnett and Matt Hayes (both playing their last CIS game) the team shot 28%.

Simon Fraser (14-4, 4th RPI): Host Regina in best-of-3 series. It's the first playoff game the Clan men have hosted in a long time, says Howard Tsumura, along with other notes on SFU here. The Clan fell behind in the first half, down 40-26, and lost 77-71. Tsumura called the second game "a near carbon-copy in reverse" as SFU won 82-75 to stay alive for today's 3 pm PT elimination game.

And they won that game quite easily, 96-77, including a 36-22 third quarter. SFU now pulls Calgary in the semi next weekend at UBC.

Saskatchewan (14-6, 11th RPI): Welcome UFV for their series. Perhaps one of the four top players in the conference that the Huskies have will see them through with a sweep in this one. Showron Glover and Michael Linklater each broke 25 points and Troy Gottselig, the third of those four, had a double-double in the Huskies' 96-85 Game 1 win. Game 2 was Friday and Glover went off for 41 points and Nolan Brudehl was an efficient 7 of 8 for 21 with eight boards. Saskatchewan advances to the Canada West Final Four next weekend at UBC.

24 comments:

A York-Carleton playoff seemed like a pipe dream a month ago, yet here we are.It was York's jaw dropping win over the Ravens thatmade it possible for the Lions to even make a run for a playoff berth,so it seems appropriate the two should meet again.I expect Carleton will win although not by 46 points like they did earlier.I don't expect the Carleton guards to shoot as poorly as they did at York.Revenge and fear of being embarrassed again should propel to a win of about 15 points.

i think there will be a lot of people that would love to see York knock off Carleton and make a run into the CIS championships...i know its pretty much an impossibility, but how bizzare would it be to see York make a run like that/what if he won it all

That would be bizare, considering all those great teamsBain had in the late 70's to mid 80's that won six Wilson Cups but never a national title.If they won it all after a 6-16 seaso, that would be bizare beyond belief.

York stood up pretty well for about 3 quarters but in the end could not stop Carleton. The Lions can score with most teams but as has been the case for much of this season, their d let them down. If Oliveri can address this going forward they will be dangerous. The 2 Kitchener teams had their bubbles burst however Laurier was impressive, going down shooting; the same cannot be said for Waterloo which had a chance but getting a 1 for 9 from the guy some had touted as an All-Star won't cut it. A wide open look for the lead at the end that missed put the capper on McIntyre's game, which is if he's not scoring you get nothing else out of him. He will be their "leader" next season with all the graduation. Ottawa U relies on their top 3 and the Ravens will win next week, setting up Ottawa U at Lakehead for third place.

York has a pretty nice looking team heading into next season.They certainly didn't look like a 6-16 squad, even though they lost to Carleton.York has a good starting five but lacks depth.All the starters played over 30 minutes except Haynes and Kravic who were limited in PT because of foul trouble.Apart from Justin Bell there isn't a whole lot coming off the Lions' bench.In order to challenge for top spot, York needs more depth players and that should be a recruiting priority.The major question with York is who will be running the show next year?

Annon 809: It would be Lakehead @ Ottawa U, should LU and OU both loose next saturday? Is it based on Overall records? Or do hosts alternate East vs West? I dont know, how that works... please inform.

From What i could call from the box score of laurier/windsor, it came down to FT's. as Laurier beat windsor in every other category. Is it ironic that foxcroft has reffed @ least 2 Horribly lopsided FT games in the past 2 weeks? He needs to stop reffing, as he cant keep up with play.

The LU/waterloo game was controlled by Waterloo until LU made a run and tied the game mid way through the 3rd. LU had a 4 pt deficit going into the 4th. It was D that won the game for LU, they held waterloo to 19 pts in the 2nd half, 7 in 4th. Waterloo was 4/29 in the 2nd half, and didnt score a point in the last 4 minutes. The gym in Tbay was bonkers for 38 minutes. Too bad LU gave up home court on the last weekend of the reg season.

If Carleton (CIS Champonship Host) wins the OUA East championship then an OUA Bronze Medal (third place) game is necessary to determine the final OUA entry to the CIS Championships. This will be played between the two Division finalists and hosted by the team with the best conference record. If Carleton wins the OUA East then uOttawa will host either Windsor or Lakehead in this game.

In my opinion that game should be played in the gym of the team that won the head to head during the year. It doesn't seem fair that the East gets to have an inflated win total by virtue of playing Ryerson, York, and RMC 2x during the year. Windsor could potentially have to go back to Ottawa again, where they already won once this season.

Memo to Pete, your team was 10-12 (losers) in the regular season. Your team twice blew large leads against Windsor. Your team shot 69% from 3 point land in the first half, yet the score was still tied. You lost to a "better basketball team".

Article 5.4 of the CURRENT 2009-2010 Basketball regulations says the following:

BRONZE MEDAL GAME (Third Place Game) - played to determine third berth to CIS ChampionshipIn the event that an OUA schools hosts the CIS Championship and also wins their division, thethird place game will be hosted by the team with the best conference record; if that is tied theresult of the head to head competition between the two teams involved in the third placegame will determined the host of that game.

Well, that looks like the definitive answer, eh?Don't really like the idea best conference recorddeciding who gets to host because of the obvious inequities (OUA West doesn't have RMC as a patsy).I'd prefer head to head meeting or alternating year by year like the Wilson.First of all, either LU or Windsor better hope Ottawa doesn'tpull off an upset because then the whole discussion becomes moot.

Anon 12:54...Ottawa's record is legit.They were 6-2 against the OUA West and they kickedLakehead's ass in T-Bay.They lost two games to Carleton and one to Windsor (OT) and Brock.Besides, Windsor should take care of Lakehead at home anyway.

Ottawa and Carleton's record may be exagerated based on the fact that the teams they play on saturday night had to play the other the previous night...If they had a playing partner such as RMC or Laurentian them maybe some teams might not be as worn down on the saturday night games. The exact opposite can be said for queens who has to travel each weekend with the opposition getting an easy game against RMC on friday and then being fresher come the saturday night game. Nothing can be done to change these schedules based on the costs that would be incured.

Anon 6:24...knocking Laurentian is a bit unfair. Carleton was unable to pull away from first quarter 10 point lead and won by 12 at Laurentian while the previous night, Ottawa barely squeezed by with a 5 point win

Ottawa U was ranked 5th because of their quality wins against top teams during the year . Yes , the OUE is weaker than OUW ;however , their ranking was not based on wins against RMC& York it was based on wins against LH , MAC , TO , W , LU . They were only beaten once this year by a team that had not been ranked in top 10 (Brock). If they lose to CAR(BIG IF) they deserve home advantage on their record alone.

If Ottawa beats Carleton there is no 3rd place game.The Gee Gees are eastern champs and will host the WC and Carleton has its host berth.Either Lakehead or Windsor is left out in the cold with no second chance.So obviously the two west teams are rooting for Carleton.

Could someone please enlighten me, to the last time in recent history (let's say 7 years) that the UofO beat Carleton? What is the head-to-head record?

I believe the Ravens have the GeeGees by the nards and that a "upset" in the OUA-E is unlikely... saying that...

Something tells me that the result in the OUA-W final is going to be a different story. I jumped on the Lakehead "bandwagon" after watching them at York last semester, and have tried to watch as many of their games online as I can. I have a gut feeling that this team will leave everything on the floor on Saturday night (from their starters to their 10th man) and that they are going to sqeak out the "W".

Does anyone else see this coming, or am I still drunk from Sundays Hockey game?